The Next Potluck Meeting is December 11 at 6:00 PM

Speaker: Max Trickett from LFS presenting “New Boating ‘Must Haves’”

Unfortunately, the Showstoppers are unable to be with us for our holiday potluck this year, but we have a great speaker instead.

Our guest speaker for our December Potluck meeting is Max Trickett from LFS. He is going to talk about the exciting new boating “Must Have” items for your boats. He will bring special discount coupons for our members and answer any of your boating questions.

I tried to schedule Joy & Jim Carey as speakers for a 2019 Potluck. We had them speak at one of our summer potlucks and tell their story about being rescued by the Coast Guard as they had to abandon their sailboat off the coast of Oregon.

Many of you have requested to have Jim and Joy back to update us after finally recovering their boat. They are in Fort Bragg, CA and won’t be able to come up and speak to our club. However; Joy wrote an update message for our newsletter. As you read below, you will see why they are my new heroes.

Cheers,
Lesli Beasley

–Lesli Beasley (360) 201-1669
CYC Administration Officer

Hello to the Corinthian Yacht Club in Bellingham,

We thought we had lost our boat, Kelaerin, in rough seas when a rollover ended our circumnavigation 150 miles from our departure point off Cape Flattery. You listened to our tale and then a few weeks later we were informed by the USCG station in Coos Bay, Oregon that the CG cutter Barracuda had come upon our boat 44 miles out from Ft. Bragg, CA while on a routine patrol. We took off with our RV to Ft. Bragg almost immediately, and since arriving here on July 25, we have been hard at work dewatering Kelaerin and mucking the “book” sludge out from every locker, crack and crevice there is on the boat.

It seemed to us like it might be an almost impossible task when we first looked at her, but friends from 40 years ago in our boat building days called and insisted on coming up and helping us out. What a great start it was. Mike helped Jim remove the steering pedestal, the cockpit floor and then the engine while Alison helped me scoop out the sludge from the bilges.

The engine removal has been the costliest and logistically challenging part of this ordeal. We had to hire a crane, then hire a truck and take the engine to San Francisco to a diesel mechanic. Five weeks of being soaked in salt water had done a number on the Ford Lehman diesel engine that Jim had painstakingly taken care of for almost 30 years. It’s back in now, and Jim is tackling the tedious job of rewiring everything in the battery box and the engine room.

I’m doing what I’ve always done…painting, scraping, and varnishing. Pretty much every square inch of the boat needs a re-do. There’s a lot that needs replacing like our cockpit enclosure, cushions, several electronics, the dinghy, a main sail and so on, but we are getting there. We hope to head south to Ensenada in a couple more months.

Thanks for thinking about us. I apologize for not getting back to you all before this. We just got involved in the project. We’ve been lucky that so many of our old cruising friends have stayed in contact with us, even visiting us here, and the Ft. Bragg fishermen and sailing locals have stopped by regularly to see what progress we’ve made. We’re in good spirits. We’re working hard like always, and looking forward to getting back to cruising. We have our sights set on the Sea of Cortez for a few years, and then back up to the PNW to sail the inside passage to Alaska. We will be back up that way in our RV trailer for the summer months in the meantime, and we’ll be sure to drop by one of the club meetings to check in.

Party will include live jazz, a catered buffet, a dessert dash, a raffle, dancing, and wine by Samson Winery.
Event purpose: Support youth scholarships and community access to Bellingham Bay! We invite our community to join us in a fun and engaging celebration of a phenomenal summer enabling people to connect with our beloved corner of the Salish Sea.

2018 Turkey Cruise

The Turkey Tides: Blakely Island Turkey Fry 2018 was a great success. Fabulous weather for the 10 boats that arrived on Friday and again for the 4 boats that came over Saturday. We started off the weekend with a Friday night Halloween party. Roaring fire, (thank you to everyone that brought wood), amazing appetizers, ooey gooey mystery buckets of brains, eyeballs and intestines, wicked games of Jenga, hand and foot and rummy 2500, haunting music, and so many costumes! Almost everyone participated in costumes which made it extra fun. The big winners of the night were new members Debbie and Dale Jones with their "deer in the headlights" costumes and Delayne Brink with "snot face man"! He totally grossed us all out, but how funny he was! We were all running for the anti-bacterial spray. This night also gave us one of the most stunning sunsets we've seen this season.

Saturday awoke with calm seas and gray skies but no rain until after the Obstacle race was completed. 6 teams, 11 challenges, one runaway balloon bag filled with about 30 blown up balloons - Troy and Don Kosa came to the rescue, racing out to scoop it from East Sound! Hilarity ensued. We found out who was best at tying nautical knots, who could handle the balance course, which team could build the highest balloon tower and who had best aim at archery, football toss and Frisbee throwing, just to name a few. You haven't seen anything until you witness Deb Jones, Karen Reed, Wendy Hewlett, Sylvia Holmstrom, Linda Benafel and Vicki Brink - all the captains- coach their teams on passing a hula hoop from one team member to the last without ever letting go of hands. A huge shout out to these ladies and everyone that participated in this fun event. After Mike Reed and Mike Kirkland - thank you fellas - cleaned up all the course materials, we headed back to our boats for finishing touches on our dinner menu. 4:00pm arrived with Dave Jones, Dan Goodwater (my brother in law) and chef extraordinaire Troy pulling the turkeys from their pots, it was time to dig in! I can't even begin to tell you how delicious the food was. Thirty-five of us tucked in to all things Thanksgiving. Yes, 35 people this year! That was a record for Troy and I. After a few naps and walks around the marina everyone was back at the games which lasted well into the night. There were many concerns about weather for our return on Sunday, but all for not. It was calm seas, no rain and a beautiful ride home.

Thank-you to everyone that joined us this year, we had a blast. Loads of new members and a few returnees. I'm already planning some new things for next year!

Tracy Olney

Good cruise destinations:

Aleck Bay, Lopez Island (A)

Clark Island (M)

Deer Harbor, Orcas Island (A/D)

Eagle Harbor, Cypress Island (M)

Garrison Bay, San Juan Island (A)

Lighted Boat Dock Party, Squalicum (D)

Lummi Island (A)

Obstruction Pass Park (A/M)

Pleasant Cove, Chuckanut Bay (A)

Prevost Harbor, Stuart Island (A/D)

Rosario Resort, Orcas Island (D),

Round the County (M)

“Thelma and Louise” women’s cruise

Vendovi Island (D)

West Sound, Orcas Island (R/D/A) Winter Cove, Saturna Island (A)

Whirlwind Cruise: Jones Island, Deer Harbor-West Sound (A/D)

Other options: you can choose your own destination! All in the Gulf Islands (one week to 10 days)

Hosting A CYC Cruise:

First and foremost you must select a cruise that sparks your interest, whether a favorite destination to share with other CYC members or a location that you have always wanted to visit but until now have not done so. Second, you determine dates that suit your schedule. Third, you decide what activities, if any, you wish to explore such as hiking, dining, shopping, beach combing, etc. and whether or not there will be any pot lucks or BBQs. Once these tasks are decided you can send an email to all members by sending it to the cruise chair and/or webmaster who will forward it to the membership. Then you coordinate the trip with members so that you have a destination, phone numbers, boat names (radio contact), MMSI numbers, and any other necessities. Then you sail together or converge at your planned destination and have a wonderful time exploring the area!

Photographs and a paragraph or two in the next newsletter are always a welcome addition. Please remember that your back yard (San Juan and Gulf Islands) contains some of the best cruising grounds in the world. Get out there and enjoy your boat and your fellow CYC members. Valuable information about local cruising can be found in San Juan Islands, a Boater's Guidebook by Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer, 2013.